Bill Cosby said he got drugs (Quaaludes – a powerful sedative) to give women for sex. Sad, but it appears that Dr. Huxtable is Away Right Now. Perhaps it’s important to realize that actors are only acting! And sadly human are only humans and we all have 
the potential to make bad choices. The challenge is not the choice, but how we deal with the choices we are personally responsible for. Cosby is now finding his legacy is crashing down around him since he has chosen to deny the truth.
Associated Press Reporter Maryclaire Dale in an article entitled: “Cosby said he got drugs to give women for sex,” wrote about (July 6, 2015) a 2005 court deposition that AP was successful in getting unsealed. In the deposition, Cosby admitted to giving women Quaaludes, a powerful sedative.
According to the article:
Cosby’s lawyers had fought the release of the documents on the grounds that it would embarrass their client…Cosby has been accused of drugging and raping scores of women in episodes dating back to the late 1960s.This is the first time he’s on the record admitting to the use of drugs to obtain sex.”
The Associated Press has done a tremendous job in getting the documents released and the judge who heard the arguments, U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno, finally said that Cosby:
“has donned the mantle of public moralist and mounted the proverbial electronic or print soap box to volunteer his views on, among other things, childrearing, family life, education, and crime.”
More than 25 women have come forward, accusing Cosby of drugging, and then having sex with them. The facts of this case have been broadcast far and wide; certainly as far and wide as the kindly wisdom of Dr. Cliff Huxtable, his beautiful wife and his perfect life.
Who would not have wanted to be the Huxtables? A doctor and a lawyer with a perfect family living in a renovated brownstone, surrounded by loving friends, the Huxtables were amazing role models. Behind Cliff Huxtable was an actor and comedian who never used foul language, was immensely successful and in addition to everything else, had a Ph.D. in education. He was, what many of us aspired to be.
The Wizard
For me, the most telling scene in the Wizard of Oz was when Dorothy’s dog Toto slipped behind the curtain and started tugging at the Wizard’s pant legs. In the movie it was an endearing and very human scene. We learned that the man behind the powerful curtain was no more than a man. In fact, he turned out to be a pretty decent chap. He gave out stuff to the Tin Man, the Straw Man and an award to the Lion. He even got Dorothy – and Toto, back home to Kansas.
Bill Cosby is the Wizard in reverse. Unlike Toto discovering the kindly old man behind the curtain, few of us wanted to see what was lurking behind the shadow of Dr. Cliff Huxtable. We trotted out ex-cast mates and there were those in Hollywood who “owed him,” who rose to his defense. Bill Cosby continued to perform and thousands went to hear and cheer him.
A few women came forward, then a half dozen, then a dozen or more and many saw the women as opportunists and liars. No one could fathom that this guiding social light and pontificator on all things regarding education, race, life-choices and morals could have drugged two dozen or more women and then had sex with them.
None of Bill Cosby’s messages were wrong. He made sense. The problem was that everyone was listening to Dr. Cliff Huxtable and no one dared challenge the actor who was raping women; no one wanted to look behind the curtain. In a sense, the persona of the actor was much more important to many than was the possibility of the acts of rape. To this day he still has tens of thousands of defenders.
Nothing new to see here
Bill Cosby is not so much a phony who fed Quaaludes to women as an ethical commentary on how we view power and status. Parents, guardians, teachers and the clergy, have often had their influence usurped by actors, Reality “personalities” and athletes who have been placed on pedestals by studios, PR people and social media gurus. Unfortunately, many parents have been all too happy to abdicate their roles to Reality TV stars and other popular culture characters.
Most children and many adults do not realistically see behind the curtain. We don’t see “stars” behaving badly as object lessons; we given them passes. How many times does a starlet need to steal; an actor use drugs; an athlete bully or commit violence before we say something?
How often do we say to our children or to ourselves even, that Dr. Huxtable was only a role played by an actor and that the actor is a person? He didn’t live in Philadelphia, he wasn’t a physician, he wasn’t married to Phylicia Rashad and those weren’t his kids.
We cannot ignore the fact that the man in the unsealed document of 2005 is most probably the same man who some still defend in 2015.
